For the record, Pacific Crest is in the bull camp on Tesla, maintaining an Outperform rating and $293 price target on shares (though this is down from a prior target of $300). On Friday, Tesla shares closed at $198.

Here's the overview of the firm's bull case on Tesla:

While we are tempering our expectations slightly on FX and Model X gross margins, an on-time Model X, a Model 3 announcement and Gigafactory updates could all send shares meaningfully higher. We think the time to own TSLA is now.

Right now, Tesla sells only the Model S sedan, but it is expected to debut the Model X SUV later this year and in time announce the Model 3, a lower-cost model. The Model X has faced delays, and the Model 3 isn't expected until 2017.

Pacific Crest is bullish on prospects that the Model 3 could boost sales, as the firm writes: "Having talked with over a dozen Model S owners in the past year, we'd note a couple of key takeaways commonly heard: (1) you'd be hard pressed to find any product more adored by its owners and (2) the vast majority (like two-thirds to three-quarters) are emphatic that they'd buy another when a lower-priced model is released."

The firm is basically saying that if you have bought one Tesla, you will probably buy another.

The firm also breaks down the bear and bull camps — or those that think Tesla shares are worth less or worth more than today's value — as follows:

Bears cling to the notion that demand is not sustainable, China may never happen and execution issues that have plagued the company recently will persist. Bulls believe the recent near-term hiccups are just noise and longer-term opportunity should be the focus. We wouldn't disagree. We think Tesla has established an extremely difficult-to-achieve foothold at the high end from which it can continue building momentum with future product cycles, provided there is reasonably solid execution. We remain buyers of the stock.

Earlier this month, Business Insider's Matt DeBord looked at some of the crazy sales assumptions folks in the analyst community are making regarding the Model 3. Notably, analysts at RW Baird were modeling for sales of the Model 3 — which we have not yet seen in prototype form — to compete with the best-in-class BMW 3-series or Audi A4, which sell about 290,000 and 215,000 per year respectively, by 2018.

But over the past year, Tesla has become the kind of battleground stock that has evangelical believers and doubters, with almost no neutral parties.